#college-football

#college-football

I saw this and caught myself saying out loud saying, "Why?!" Because Tulsa lost 45-10 last year? Different team. Oklahoma State was up just 17-7 at the half against UT Martin and then got bulldozed by Oregon. This is not just a slow start. The concerns were there all summer: overhauled coaching staff, heavy reliance on transfers, no proven quarterback and an offensive line without a single returning starter.

AROUND MIDDAY SATURDAY, Jackson Arnold will hop off a bus and walk into Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. He will know his way around but won't take the familiar route toward the home locker room. Nor will he put on the crimson and white Oklahoma jersey. Instead, he will suit up for Auburn and begin final preparations for a game brimming with emotion and nostalgia.

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- The biggest brands in pet care have courted him with swag boxes. He travels with a security detail and is cashing in on his own merch line. Hotels that ban animals bend the rules when he arrives. EA Sports even built him into its video game. Who could've guessed one of the breakout stars this college football season would be a cat?

Week 3 of the 2025 season basically smacked us in the face with them. Whether you considered Texas A&M-Notre Dame or Georgia-Tennessee the biggest game of the week, it didn't matter -- they both went down to the wire with quarterback heroics and special teams heartbreaks. And two of the sport's wildest rivalries, Pitt-West Virginia and Ole Miss-Arkansas, both gave us classics too.

One of the great things about college football as an experience is that with only 12 games and what feels like 100 teams hoping to play for a championship, every game is loaded with the import of the entire world. When you place that burden on a bunch of 20-year-olds, and coaches constantly on the doorstep of an aneurysm, lots of chaotic and hilarious things will emerge.

The 8-yard scoring drive was set up when another freshman, defensive back Aiden Manutai, jumped on a loose ball after a muffed punt return try by Minnesota's Koi Perich. The Bears scored three plays later when Sagapolutele faked a handoff, rolled left and delivered a 2-yard touchdown pass to wide-open Jordan King. The extra point pushed the lead to 10 points.

Joseph completed 16 of 22 passes and also rushed for 63 yards and a score for the Monarchs (2-1), who registered the program's first road win over an ACC opponent. "We just couldn't get any momentum going," Pry said. "We turned the ball over in the red zone. We get a turnover and we can't cash in on it. There were flashes, in the game, of the ability to run the ball. There were flashes of the ability to throw the ball, but not near consistent enough."

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Ty Simpson threw for 382 yards and four touchdowns, including two to returning star Ryan Williams, and No. 19 Alabama overpowered Wisconsin for the second consecutive year, 38-14 on Saturday. Simpson completed 24 of 29 passes, with two of his misses being drops by Williams and freshman Lotzier Brooks. Williams finished with five receptions for 165 yards after missing last week's game because of a concussion.

But while the new college football playoff format rewards eight-touchdown wins, it does damned little to explain relative strengths and weaknesses, which is why Week 3 is ever so slightly more handy. There are a few games that can help cut down the seasonal thicket, thanks to the networks leaning into September schedule bombs that make people think that there are only two sports in America.

Week 1 had headliners for the casuals. Week 2 had rivalry games and loads of thrillers for the hardcores. In Week 3, we attempt to split the difference. This week gives us high-stakes helmet games (Texas A&M-Notre Dame, Georgia-Tennessee, Florida-LSU) and rivalry games both bitter (Pitt-West Virginia) and, sometimes, silly (Ole Miss-Arkansas). But most of all, it gives us PANIC.

But few shenanigans have felt so utterly bizarre, inherently funny and impactful as Marco Wilson's toss of an LSU player's shoe in the fourth quarter of a rivalry game on Dec. 12, 2020. The throw, which came in a tie game against a heavy underdog, certainly cost Florida a win. It might, too, have kept the Gators from the College Football Playoff.

Mama, what have you done? I trace your steps in the darkness of one Am I what's left? Silver lines whisper to me "Wounded arms must carry the load" We're spitting off the edge of the world, out in the night Never had no chance, nowhere to hide We're spitting off the edge of the world, (nowhere to run) Never had no chance, (out comes the sun) Spitting off the edge of the world -- "Spitting off the Edge of the World"

Clemson trailed Troy 16-3 at halftime before finding its way in the second half to avoid an 0-2 start. After limited cowbell prep, Arizona State's ears will be ringing for a while as a last-minute defensive breakdown doomed the defending Big 12 champs against Mississippi State in Starkville. Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood's plan to shock the world has been put on hold as Brent Venables' Oklahoma defense humbled the nation's No. 1 recruit in Norman.

If you want to be a top-10 team in college football, you better be invested in winning. We spend to win,

Ray: Forty-seven Division I coaches have already lost a game this year, which means that 47 coaches are on the hot seat, because that's the way it's always worked. And frankly, that's how it probably should work now that college football is trying to be like European soccer, jamming all the power into a few hands. For instance, Erik ten Hag was fired after three games at Bayer Leverkusen based on . . . well, that's how soccer works.

Around 5 or 5:15 p.m. local time on Saturday, the second Missouri Tigers home game of the season will go to a commercial break before the fourth quarter begins, and as has become customary in recent seasons, the Killers' "Mr. Brightside" will play over the loudspeaker. It's also become customary that the Mizzou fans in attendance at Memorial Stadium will lob f-bombs in unison at their biggest rival. For the first time, that rival will be in said stadium to hear it.

With Week 1 in the books, the college football season shifts into full gear as contenders begin to separate from pretenders. September is often when momentum is built, hype meets reality, and early missteps can linger all season. From blue-blood clashes such as Michigan- Oklahoma to rivalry battles in Ames, Iowa, and Columbia, Missouri, Week 2 brings both tradition and intrigue. Quarterbacks are already defining the season's storylines, and new coordinators and transfers continue to shape the national conversation.

It was a helluva game, down to the last play,

What is SP+? In a single sentence, it's a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency that I originally created at Football Outsiders in 2008. SP+ is intended to be predictive and forward-facing. It is not a re9sume9 ranking (hence the lack of unbeatens near the top), so it does not automatically give credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling -- no good predictive system does.

In another hit to the Tennessee Volunteers' secondary, starting cornerback Rickey Gibson III will be out for "an extended period" after injuring his left arm in Saturday's season-opening win against Syracuse. Gibson, a returning starter, left Saturday's game in the second quarter. Coach Josh Heupel did not specify what the injury was or reveal a possible timeline for the return of Gibson, who had 32 tackles, 5 pass breakups and a forced fumble last season, The No. 24 Vols face East Tennessee State on Saturday before hosting No. 5 Georgia on Sept. 13.

CJ Daniels made a spectacular one-handed touchdown grab and Rueben Bain Jr. had an interception on a thrice-deflected pass in the fourth quarter for the Hurricanes, who outgained Notre Dame 324 yards to 314. Malachi Toney had a touchdown catch and CharMar Brown added a TD run for Miami. CJ Carr, in his first start for Notre Dame, finished 19 of 30 for 221 yards with two touchdown passes and an interception -- plus a rushing score with 3:21 left